Social Media—The Core Struggle

Why Social Media Feels Like A Full-time Job—But Shouldn't

Social media is often sold to small business owners as “free marketing.” And while it’s true you don’t pay to post, it comes with hidden costs — your time, your mental energy, and sometimes your self-belief.

If you’re wearing all the hats in your business — marketing manager, admin assistant, bookkeeper, customer service rep — finding the bandwidth to post consistently can feel impossible. The end result? Social media becomes a guilt-trip. You feel like you should be doing it, but it’s always slipping to the bottom of the list.

Why It Feels So Hard

When you don’t have a clear plan, every post is a brand-new problem to solve. You sit down to post and end up staring at a blinking cursor. By the time you’ve thought of an idea, found an image, and written a caption, an hour’s gone — and your to-do list hasn’t gotten any shorter.

This is why so many business owners describe social media as “a struggle.” It’s not just the task itself — it’s the constant decision-making that goes with it.

The Shift that Changes Everything

Instead of creating on the fly, batch your thinking. Decide your core content for the week before you’re under pressure to post. I recommend:

• Creating just three core pieces of content per week.

• Repurpose those pieces across your chosen platforms—create once, post multiple times. Ask ChatGPT or your favourite AI assistant to rephrase what you've written for the other platforms. The language differs slightly but platform-specific adaptation helps. Also ask for platform-specific hashtags, as they also differ.

• Use the same idea in different formats, for example turn a blog into a carousel and then into a reel or short video.

The Bonus Benefit

When you post consistently, you stop feeling like social media is a judgment waiting to happen and start seeing it as a conversation you’re leading. Conversations build relationships—the kind that lead to sales, referrals and also opportunities.

So if social media has been feeling like a full-time job you didn’t sign up for, try creating a plan for the week ahead. Three good posts, repurposed and scheduled can replace a whole lot of stress and “shoulds” with calm, confident visibility.

I hope you find this useful and as always if you have any questions, please send me a message!